


Making Paper Planes 'Til The Sun Goes Down

by néamhni (uaigneach)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - Real World, Dreams vs. Reality, Gen, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Pre-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Real Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-15 14:59:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17530919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uaigneach/pseuds/n%C3%A9amhni
Summary: Five high school students are doing what high schoolers do best - goofing off - when tragedy strikes. The next thing they know, they find themselves in the world of Avatar the Last Airbender.Arriving 25 years before Aang will awaken, what are they supposed to do? How are





	1. Imagine What We Could've Done

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smallshadowybird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallshadowybird/gifts).
  * Inspired by [this Original Song for his brother](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/451889) by Christian Burrows. 



> So Imma start this off with stating that this is my absolute least favourite kind of story to write. My friend requested this and because I'm shitty at gifts, I actually figured I'd write it. I figure I have enough subscribers that at least one other person is going to click on this story out of curiosity alone so here's the little disclaimer.
> 
> Hey M, I did it. Are you happy now? It's up and this is where you'll be able to read it.

“So that was a load of BS,” Luke announced right after the bell rang and by technicality, all obligations to the classroom were finished. This did not mean that there were only a couple people still in the classroom. In fact, it was quite the contrary. Everyone was still in their seats in the circle around the classroom because the presentations technically weren’t even _over_ yet. No one had so much as closed their binders and yet as soon as the bell rang, Luke immediately dropped the semi-professional facade he puts up during class time in favour of revealing to everyone what they already knew.

All the same, that was the signal for everyone else to also give up on any attempt at professionalism and the room was filled with a flurry of motion as the desks were lazily moved back into rows and conversation began again.

Kate shoved her notebooks in her bag and hurriedly shrugged on her winter coat while her friend Mary put her own books away at a more sedate pace. “Hey so I have a physics project to work on with Jennifer do you have any room in your car today?” Mary asks casually as she started putting on her own winter coat.

Almost as if summoned by the words “room in your car today,” Luke’s head shot up like a dog that had just seen a squirrel. “Hey, Kate! Can I get a ride?” He bellowed, causing the remainder of the class to also turn their heads to watch the spectacle before them.

“Sure, I don’t have to drive Ryan or Jack today so it’s fine.” Kate shrugged, moving to wait impatiently by the door for Mary to finally start moving. She had a thing about being late that just sort of confused the others because she was usually late to things these days. Their next class after AP English was Calculus, and the teacher didn’t care whether they were late or not. Kate seemed to care for some ridiculous reason, so in an effort to be civil, Mary hurried up a little bit. As they turned to leave Kate threw one last message over her shoulder over at Jennifer. “Meet us at the English stairwell. We’ll walk to the car together.”

And then, they headed to Calculus.

 

* * *

 

Kate spent the few minutes she had to herself before she had to drive a group of morons home grumbling to herself as she struggled to grab her keys from the side pocket of her backpack. She was too stubborn and lazy to actually bother with removing the backpack to get them, and instead just spent the minute it took to walk down the hallway looking like a turtle that was stuck on its back and trying to get back up only she was walking. She knew that she looked stupid, however at this point in time she was too pissed to actually care. Yet again her Finance teacher was being a right prick, so she was in a foul mood.

This meant that the drive home was bound to be _very_ fun. Very.

By the time that she got to the stairwell, there were already people waiting for her. Jennifer was standing by the doors leaning against the wall and tapping away at her phone. She brushed a small strand of her short hair behind her ear and glanced up every couple of seconds, smiling softly as she noticed Kate’s approach.

Behind her stood one of the other people that she was supposed to drive home. Luke stood tall, his 6’3” frame easily towering over any stragglers that were still in the stairwell. He stood next to another friend of hers, Mitchell Huang. They had gone to elementary school together, although they hadn’t spoken outside of class in a while. All the same, they were friends.

When the other boy noticed her, she waved a cheerful hello and trotted over to them, already her bad mood beginning to fade. It would return again once she’d dropped everyone off, but for the time being, she was in much better spirits. “We’re only waiting on Mary now,” she says instead of greeting them as she inserts herself in the conversation.

Luke grinned playfully at her and slung an arm around Mitchell. “We’re kidnapping Mitchell,” he announced brightly. Kate froze for a second and she exchanged a confused glance with Mitchell, but ultimately they decided to just continue to make small talk while waiting for Mary to arrive.

“I mean what a fucking bit of bullshit, yeah? What the fuck was that debate in class? I don’t understand what the whole point of all of this is. Like, how was a group supposed to argue that Hamlet was too happy? What the actual fuck do we think are doing? Like this is the ultimate bullshit like I can’t even,” Luke began to complain, causing Mitchell to roll his eyes.

“I don’t think it sounds that bad, guys,” he said with false sympathy complete with exaggerated eye rolls.

Kate frowned, “no, no, you don’t understand. It actually was that bad, like, I have no idea how we were able to even argue our points. Legit only like two days ago we didn’t have _any_ points at all. Everything was a stretch because Hamlet is literally just a depressed piece of shit. I swear he _single-handedly_ causes this entire play to be a tragedy. Nothing would have happened if he hadn’t gone bonkers and decided he needed to kill his uncle-daddy.”

Mitchell choked. “Uncle-daddy?” He asked, scandalized.

“Yeah, he married his sister in law who is Hamlet’s mommy – therefore Claudius is Hamlet’s uncle-daddy!” Luke declared triumphantly causing the other two to snort and Jennifer to finally tune in to the conversation that was happening not even 4 ft. away from her.

“What on earth are you guys even talking about?” she asked, laughing part way through her sentence. Luke just beamed brighter.

“Oh nothing much, just how you’re Kevin’s uncle-daddy.”

This simple blasé statement was said very loudly, and because the universe likes to fuck people over, that’s when the entire stairwell just sort of suddenly fell silent. That meant that everyone heard Luke’s proud statement. Jennifer buried her face in her hands and her shoulders began to shake with a combination of laughter and embarrassment.

Luke’s cheeks coloured slightly, but for the most part, he was shameless, so he merely began to do his best Dad™ laugh complete with the hands on the stomach and the weird half bent squat. This combined with Jennifer’s embarrassed groan caused Mitchell to also burst out laughing and soon the four of them had dissolved into an endless stream of seemingly hysterical laughter.

 

“I’m here!”

A body slammed into Kate’s back causing her to careen into Mitchell. The only thing that stopped him from falling over was the size difference between the two of them which was admittedly comical at this point. All the same, Kate and Mary somehow ended up on the floor sprawled over Luke’s feet. Mary grinned unrepentantly at the friend that she’d effectively taken down, pointedly ignoring the scowl that had painted itself across the other teen’s features.

He placed his hands on his hips and looked down at them in mock disapproval. “Now what are you two doing down there making a scene,” he mock-scolded, wagging his finger at them with a scowl.

“Hey I’m not the one at fault here, ya know!” Kate pointed out indignantly, rolling out from under Mary and groaning as she managed to bash her knee against the staircase. “And Mary what the fuck? You know I have bad knees– oh there goes my hip, shit,” Kate grumbled as she struggled to get up with her backpack and puffy winter coat getting in the way and causing her to almost look like a child that had yet learned to walk. It was a rather ridiculous scene, so Jennifer took pity on her and offered a hand to help her up. “Remember, I don’t start shit–” she began only to get cut off by the other 4 chorusing all together.

“You only escalate, we know.”

Kate huffed and dramatically and stomped over to the door. “Let’s just go to the car before I manage to hurt myself further.”

Mary just smiled happily and flipped her a peace sign which was answered by Kate flipping the bird.

 

It was December, so it could be considered chilly, but that didn’t stop Luke from poking fun at the fact that Kate had on at least 2 coats and looked very grumpy as she trudged on towards the side street she’d parked her car on that morning. The walk was filled with good-natured comradery and everything was fine all up until Mitchell broke the fun atmosphere with an admittedly legitimate question.

“Hey, wait. Am I actually going with you guys?”

There was a pause.

“You know what? Sure. Fuck it. It’s not like one more person will make that much of a difference. You’ll just need to direct me to your house.” Kate caved in a huff, continuing her little waddle down the street as if this was business as usual. Technically, for her, it was. Mary and Jennifer remained indifferent, simply adjusting their step size to catch up with the other teen while Luke let out an excited whoop of joy and bounded after the trio with Mitchell’s arm firmly in his grasp.

“You’re the best, Kate!”

“I know.”

 

* * *

 

“Alright, so where am I dropping you off, Mitchell?” Kate asked as she carefully pulled away from all the chaos that surrounded Vincent Massey. “I know the general area of where you live but– oh fuck you, you piece of shit! I had the right of way, fucker.” Kate broke off mid-sentence to swear at another driver that had chosen to be difficult.

“Do you always swear when you drive?” Jennifer asked. She sat crammed into the back of the car in between Mary and Mitchell and she looked about ready to jump out the window. Luke was taller than Mitchell, even if only by a couple of inches, so he got shotgun based purely off convenience. Kate drove a smaller car (although she and Mary had managed to fit a bike into the back seat despite all dimensions saying that technically it shouldn’t work, so 5 teenagers wasn’t really that big of a stretch) so shoving two people who were over 6 foot into the back would just be ridiculous. One person over 6 foot in the back was ridiculous.

All the same, with Luke in the passenger seat, he had complete control over the radio, which was just a stupid move on Kate’s part.

“Oh yeah,” Kate said, glancing in the reverse mirror and flicking on her signal almost absentmindedly. “I swear all the time. It’s like a running monologue in my car every day. I’m either singing really loudly and really badly, or I’m swearing at other drivers.”

Jennifer buried her head in her hands again which received loud laughter from everyone else in the car.

Luke was the loudest and because he’s a little shit, he chose that time to play his music. “Luke, why the fuck do you have ‘Promiscuous Girl’ on your phone?” Kate demanded in between giggles. Luke just wiggled deeper into his seat, shaking the car.

“Excuse you, I think that my music taste is fantastic. All you have on your phone is kpop and musicals!” He yelled indignantly and the car dissolved into yet another laughing fit.

Kate rolled her eyes. “Oh fuck you.” She scowled.

As conversations tend to do, the car dissolved into quiet as the teens ran out of things to say on the chosen topic. The silence was then broken by Mary bringing up her latest fixation. “Hey, what element do you think that you’d bend? Based on our star signs Luke, you’d be air, but the rest of us would be either earth or fire.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone as if this was an everyday conversation as opposed to something both philosophical and geeky.  

“Honestly I’ve never really thought all that much about it,” Mitchell admitted thoughtfully. “Airbender, I guess? I don’t know, it’s been a while since I watched Avatar.”

Luke scoffed loudly, “air? As if. I’d be something much more badass – like fire. I’m a strong warrior.” he proudly proclaimed not unlike the time that he performed a boast in English.

“So you’d be the Sokka of the group is what you’re saying.”

Luke gasped theatrically. “How dare you say that! He’s lame, he can’t even bend and he’s literally only there to make jokes about meat. Speaking of meat, how hard do you think it was for the writers to _not_ slip in a dick joke?”

Jennifer choked on her own spit and fell into a coughing fit as Mitchell groaned loudly at Luke’s dumbass question. “Shut _up,_ Luke.”

“And hey, don’t diss Sokka man. He may be nonbender but he was pretty good at making strategies and being a capable warrior without bending. Like, look at Suki and Ty Lee or even Mai. None of them can bend but they’re super capable. Sokka can fight with a sword.” Kate pointed out but Luke was having none of it.

“No way would I be a nonbender dude. I’m too cool for that,” he insisted despite everyone else contradicting him. He was having none of it. “If you’re such an expert what do you think that you’d be?” He demanded, probably thinking that he’d bested her. Kate shook her head and took a corner sharper than she probably should have.

“I don’t really know. I guess like Mitchell I never really considered it all that much. I guess I’ll just go with based off what Mary was saying. I’m a Virgo so like, I’m an earthbender I guess. When I was younger I was much more volatile ya know, so I easily fit into the Zuko category of firebender, but I like to think that I’ve improved and now I have the stability needed to be an earthbender.” She pointed out.

“And besides, green would really fit your aesthetic.” Mary added cheerfully.

“Yeah, that too.”

Kate pulled up to the red light and prepared to wait while asking for some more directions from Mitchell. By all logic, this should have been a perfectly fine moment and everything should have gone smoothly. However, the universe works in mysterious ways, and that didn’t actually happen.

What did happen, was that a car in front of them had lost control of the wheel. Before anyone could even react, the car was sent careening right towards them. They were boxed in with cars on either side and nowhere else to go. In a split second, their lives were flashing before their eyes and all they could see was the terrified driver desperately cranking the wheel as the large van plowed right into the front of their vehicle.


	2. Hold on Tight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ran it through grammarly but probs missed stuff

Waking up was… complicated.

Kate fully expected to wake up in the smoke and ruins of her car alongside her possibly dead classmates, but that just… wasn’t the case. Instead, she was laying on what felt like dirt. That… shouldn’t have been possible. Not only was she laying on her stomach, but she was also apparently outside. It was the middle of winter, there was no way that the ground would be dry let alone sandy.

The only thing stopping her from hastily sitting up and looking around was the vague details that she remembered from basic first aid – that had been a weird seminar but some of the stuff she learned was useful – and the fact that she felt a massive headache coming on. Considering the last time she’d been awake she had been hit by a car, that made sense. It also made sense to actually check for personal injuries because she had been _hit by a car._

She rolled her eyes around under her closed eyelids, feeling the sleep beginning to glue her eyes shut as she struggled to ‘extend her senses’ to feel if she was injured like all the people in the stories do. To be fair, she was able to feel that she had a lot of bruises, but she’d never broken a bone before, so how was she supposed to know what that felt like?

Although, if she had a broken bone, she was pretty sure that she would know.

Deciding to bite the bullet, she slowly pried open her eyes and wearily scanned her surroundings, pushing herself up on her elbows as she did. She was laying on the ground of some kind of clearing in a wooded area. Okay. She can work with that.

Sitting up proved that she was actually not as injured as expected. Sure her tailbone was _not_ okay, but then again, her tailbone was almost never okay, so who really knows just how injured she is. She certainly doesn’t. To Kate, it seemed like all her bones were intact, so with her little self-examination taken care of, she began to look for the others.

They were also lying on the ground around Kate and She slowly but surely moved over towards Luke considering he was lying closest to her. They were all lying in various flopped positions and didn’t _look_ to be obviously injured. All the same, she wanted to be cautious because what if Luke had a broken spine and she didn’t know? What if he just stood up and then fucking died on her? She didn’t think that she’d be able to handle that.

So, she kicked his foot and clapped loudly.

“Luke! Wake up!” She yelled, causing him to jolt upright like the blankets had just been ripped off of him on a cold winter day.

“What? I’m awake!” he yells, his voice booming in the air like he was a public crier. “Wait… what?” He asks as he suddenly becomes aware of the fact that he is sitting in the dirt and not in either a car or in a bed.

Luke’s yell – which was in itself, infinitely louder than hers despite the other noise that she had also been making – work the others and Mary and Mitchell rolled over with a groan while Jennifer simply rose up slowly all the while rubbing her eyes.

Kate hoped that that meant that none of them had injured spines because if so they were all fucked. “What happened? What’s going on?” Mitchell groaned theatrically as he rolled over and began stretching. “And why do I feel like I just got hit by a truck?”

“Probably because we were.” Mary snorted, lying back down and staring up at the sky. Mitchell groaned even louder as the reality of the situation dawned on them. However they were AP kids – if there was anything that they were good at it was rolling with the punches and making the best of what they were given, albeit all the while complaining.

“Guys I think that we’re like, not in the real world,” Luke said, looking around at the unfamiliar landscape excitedly.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” Mitchell grumbled, flopping down on his belly and mashing his face in the dirt from where he had woken up.

Proving herself to yet again be inhumanly perfect, Jennifer simply chose that moment to correct Mitchell. “Actually it’s ‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’”

“Boom, Mandela effect.” Mary threw in her 2 cents.

Kate rolled her eyes as she stood up to brush off her coat and look around their surroundings. “But in all seriousness guys, where the fuck are we?”

Everyone froze as they too looked around. Somehow, instead of waking up in a crumpled shell of a car, they’d woken up in the middle of what looked almost like a forest but also… not. There were trees around them, but the ground was dryer and almost sandier than any forest that any of them had ever been in before. “This definitely doesn’t look like home,” Kate said finally as she turned to look back at the others. “Well, first thing’s first. Is anyone injured?”

“Besides being bruised everywhere?” Mitchell asked playfully before sobering up at Kate’s scowl. “I’m okay. Nothing’s broken.” Kate turned to stare pointedly at the others and got a simple thumbs up from Mary and a grin from Luke.

Jennifer had the decency to actually respond. “I’m fine,” she says with a small wobbly smile. “Is there anything that we have with us that we can use? We should find shelter.” Jennifer pointed out practically. Simultaneously, they all looked down to see that they were in fact, not wearing the clothing that they would have expected to be wearing. At the very least, none of them were wearing anything that even resembled the clothes they had worn to school that day.

Each of them appeared to have some kind of colour motif that they’d been stuck with for some reason. Mitchell had on a simple outfit that was mainly beige in colour with some orange accents. Not great for his skin tone, but it contrasted nicely with his spiked black hair. He had a little rusty covered half cape too along with brown boots with pointed toes. In extreme contrast, Jennifer was wearing what mary would describe as a parka dress. She had on thick clothing with fur on the hood and collar of her outfit and soft looking boots. Her chin-length black hair was pulled back into a french braid and secured with a leather cord strung with blue painted beads.

Mary and Luke had much more subdued and neutral clothing, similar in style of Mitchell’s. They were both dressed in muted mossy greens, although Mary’s was distinctly more feminine. Luke had a simple tunic with ¾ length sleeves and trousers while Mary was clad in a fitted dress with a high collar and sandy-toned leggings. Both outfits appeared to have strong ancient Chinese influence. Like Mitchell, Luke’s short brown hair had been left alone, while Mary’s thick black hair had been pulled into a round bun piled on top of her head. They had more heavy duty boots, although they were lighter than Jennifer’s boots.

Kate was the only one who really stood out amongst the group. She wore clothing of a more military cut, although it was clearly still designed to flatter. It was composed of dark reds and black with gold accents shaped like flames. The outfit had a skirt, but it was easy to move in while also not flashing someone because it had shorts. Like Mitchell, she had shoes with pointed toes, although the shoes went up to her knees. Her hair was done in a more traditional updo, much like Mary’s. Some of the hair was gathered in a tight top knot while the rest of her long chestnut hair was left to cascade down her back.

“Yep, definitely not on earth anymore,” Jennifer pointed out as she began to dig through her many pockets, finding a pouch full of coins. “These look like they are real silver. They definitely feel like it. I don’t recognize this currency either.”

Fortunately, it seemed like they were all gifted with some kind of weapon. Jennifer had some kind of hunting knife while Luke was able to find a bladed staff close to where he had fallen. Mary had a katana which she immediately squealed upon seeing and began gushing about how well crafted it was. Mitchell had a slingshot and a bag of marbles and Kate had two small daggers that Mary identified as throwing knives. Kate flailed for a bit at being trusted with knives but flailed even more at finding out that the only reason her hair hadn’t fallen down yet was the fact that two sharp senbon were stabbed through the top knot.

“Alright, does anyone have any idea what kind of world we’re in? This doesn’t look like any place I’ve seen on Earth so uh… fever dream?” Jennifer asked.

Mary twirled around and put a hand on her chin. “I mean, just based off of our outfits I really want to say that we’re in the world of Avatar the Last Airbender. Quick, try bending something.”

“There’s no way that that’ll work. And if we’re in some coma dream, then why are we together? I can’t astral project, but I mean, I don’t know about you.” Kate pointed out with a grumble, bouncing around and getting a feel for her outfit and how she could move in it.

“Of course _you’d_ be the first person to bring up psychic abilities.” Mitchell rolled his eyes as he shook his limbs to loosen up.

Kate sniffed, “it’s like the one thing I know a lot about. It’s been a long time since I even watched Avatar. And this is assuming that we’re _somehow_ actually in the Avatar universe! That stuff just doesn’t happen! It’s all fictional.” her voice became more hysterical the longer that she spoke, a manic look beginning to settle on her face. She wasn’t handling this all that well, and the stress was evidently getting to her.

She waved her hands around frantically as she spoke, gesturing to the world around them, and as the hysteria rose, the others began to notice an odd feeling in the air. “Hey, Kate? I think you might want to calm down,” Luke said slowly, taking a step towards her with his hands raised in the air as if to say that he was unarmed. But Kate had worked herself into a fuss and was beyond words at this point. She was in full freak-out mode now. And of course, that’s when things got even more exciting because fire was introduced. Literally. Sparks flew from her fingers and steam actually began to gather around her the more worked up she got. Finally, it peaked as an entire flame shot out from her palm as she threw her hand in yet another wave for emphasis. This sent the fire right into a tree and effectively stopped her mid-rant.

As one, the teens turned to stare at the nearby tree that was slowly but surely burning down. “Did I… Did I do _that_?” Kate whispered, her eyes going wide at the sight.

“Yup,” Luke said, popping the ‘P’. “I’m pretty sure that confirms that we’re in some kind of magic universe.”

Jennifer nodded. “At the very least, we can operate under the assumption that we’re in the Avatar universe. Now uh, I don’t really know all that much about the universe… so… Mary?” She looked embarrassed to be admitting to that weakness, but Mary just looked ecstatic. She bounced around happily for a moment before then sobering up and taking on a more critical look.

“Alright, so based on the outfits that we have, it’s pretty safe to assume what nation we each ‘come from.’ Kate is very obviously Fire Nation, Luke and I are Earth Kingdom, Jennifer is Water Tribe – Northern? Southern? Could be important later depending on _when_ we are – and Mitchell looks decently ambiguous but I’m willing to bet that he’s dressed like how the nomadic Air Nomads dressed. Now, having said that, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of us are benders. Who knows why we’re here or what we’re meant to be doing, but at the very least we have to figure who is what and what that means for our survival at the moment.”

Kate nodded in agreement, self-consciously crossing her arms under her chest and shrinking into herself. “I mean yeah, even as an atheist, I gotta admit. This is a spiritual universe and the spirits directly affect things so if we’re actually here and this isn’t some weird 7-minutes-before-death kind of thing, then that means it’s because of them and we have a purpose here.” she shuffled nervously.

Luke turned to look at her with a quirked eyebrow. “What? But like, doesn’t being an atheist mean that you don’t believe in all that stuff.”

“Doesn’t mean that I don’t know a bunch of shit about fictional spirits!” Kate snapped. “I’m here for lore, okay.” Luke threw up his hands and backed away from the fuming Fire Nation girl.

“Okay, okay,” he says defensively. “So, I’m Earth Kingdom so that means I’m obviously an earthbender. How do we do this.” He said excited, settling into a squat, his hands in fists. Then he stomped his foot dramatically with a manic grin on his face. But then… nothing happened. Like absolutely nothing.

Everyone waited for a moment as Luke tried again and again and there was still… nothing. “Uh, Luke? Nothing’s happening. Maybe you’re a nonbender. You have arguably the biggest weapon so I guess it would make sense.” Kate said slowly, peering over at Luke from a distance. Luke pouted theatrically.

“Aw c’mon!” he groaned, flopping onto the ground. “Of course we get dumped into a magic world and _I’m_ the nonbender.” he grumbled, but then turned his head to stare pointedly at Mary. “Well, aren’t you going to give it a shot?”

Mary shrugged before getting into a similar stance to the one that Luke had taken. Hers, however, was a bit more relaxed and considerably less squatting to take a shit. She took one loud audible breath in through her nose before punching one fist over. Almost exactly with her movement, a large rumble of the earth moved towards Luke and then a rock burst up right under him, launching him a good two feet into the air. On principle it was comical, but Kate was mid panic already and Luke’s loud yelp was what triggered yet another panic.

“Mary what if his spine was already damaged?!” she shrieked loudly, rushing over to Luke and fluttering her sparking hands around uselessly before finally noticing that they were sparking and then flopping backward. She seemed to be trapped in a vicious cycle.

Mary jerked backward with a twitch in her cheek, “it wasn’t like I was trying to do that!” she snapped back before realizing that Kate had just been antagonizing her and taking a deep breath. “Whatever, we’ll just have to work on this. Your hands are sparking to and depending on where we are and what’s happening you’re just as much of a liability as Mitchell’s clothes.”

Kate clenched her fists and began working through a breathing exercise that she vaguely remembers learning. Mary turned her attention to Jennifer then. “There isn’t really a way that we can test if you’re a bender or not unless you have like, water.” Jennifer shrugged and began patting around the parka until she found a small water sling.

“I don’t know if we really want to test this right now though. Maybe we can find a river or something because I don’t like the idea of wasting our only known source of water.” Jennifer pointed out. Mary nodded and then everyone turned to look at Mitchell who sort of just struck a pose and did jazz hands. Mary deadpanned at Mitchell and he rolled his eyes but did take a deep breath before spinning around in a move that was distinctly airbender in style. Unfortunately, like with Luke, nothing happened.

“Guess I’m just not a bender, guys.” He shrugged, not looking completely disappointed.

 

Kate uncrossed her arms and turned to Mary. “Well, now that we’ve established that, I say we try to find either a village or some kind of shelter. A village would be preferable since we can figure out exactly where and more importantly, _when_ we are,” she said, seemingly calmed down enough to begin to try and take charge of the situation.

“Kate’s right,” Mary added, slinging her sword over her shoulder and gesturing towards the trees. “It’s pretty safe to say that we’re in the Avatar universe, but when is incredibly important. We could be before Sozin even started the war, after the war was started but before Aang was woken up, after Aang was unfrozen, or after the war was won. Each of those 4 situations presents different issues for us. If it’s after Zuko became Fire Lord, then we run the risk of facing the Legend of Korra stuff.”

Kate groaned as they began to walk through the trees, almost tripping over roots multiple times. “If it’s after the war then I’ll be like next to no help. I didn’t watch that series because I hated the characters.”

“It wasn’t that bad!’ Jennifer offered up a token protest, but her wince said otherwise. After getting disbelieving looks she ended up caving, “okay, I admit. The characters were not handled well and the villain was stupid.”

Kate turned around to walk backward and throw finger guns at the group. “But hey, there was LGBTQ representation!” she joked before suddenly realizing her mistake as her foot caught on a root and this time she really did fall much to the amusement of everyone.

 

* * *

 

“Hey guys, we don’t really know what’s going to happen in the next bit, so maybe we should use fake names. You never know what could happen!” Luke suddenly said as they finally found a  path. “We’re in the bender world right? So everyone has Asian names and ours will stand out as odd. I mean, we already don’t look like we all belong together but at the very least we won’t have blatantly odd names right?”

Mary shrugged. “I mean, 4 out of 5 of us are at least part Asian. You’re the only one who sticks out like a sore thumb, Luke.” She points out. Luke pouts and crosses his arms like a child.

“Don’t insult the Big Serb.”

Mary rolls her eyes, “fine, fine. We can do the whole Asian name thing if you _really_ want to. Jeez. Just don’t be cringey and name yourself _‘Colour Child’_ or something equally as cringey in Japanese.”

“Um, I guess I’ll just go by my Chinese name then,” Jennifer said, glancing between the others. “Call me ‘Shi Kia.’” She flashed the peace sign before dissolving into shame-filled laughter as the situation began to catch up on her. They’d been hit by a car and woke up in a fictional universe. And now, they were making fake names. It was kind of ridiculous. Luke grinned and high fived Jennifer.

“Good choice, good choice. I like that,” he said cheerfully.

Kate lit up, “I can work with that! My Chinese name isn’t as pretty or like, meaningful since my grandmother basically just gave us names based off of our English names or her mood at the time. I'm 'Ga Lyn' but ‘Lyn’ is passable enough, yeah?” she grinned, bouncing almost excitedly at the prospect of fake names. “This is so cool, it’s like we’re on a secret mission or something. What about you, Mary? Mitchell?”

Mitchell shrugged non-committedly. “Well, my Chinese name is ‘Su Yian.’ So I guess that works if you guys _really_ want to do this.”

“What about you, Luke?” Mary asked cheerfully.

Luke opened his mouth as if to respond but Kate quickly cut him off. “You can be ‘Bèn Dàn’! We can call you ‘Ben’ for short!”

“What does that mean?” he asked curiously.

Kate pointedly looked away and exchanged a smirk with Mitchell. “Well according to Google Translate, it’s the equivalent of ‘dumbass’ and I think that really fits you well.”

Luke placed a hand over his heart and turned his nose up at the short girl. “I can’t believe you would do that to me.”

“Well, my grandmother named one of my cousin’s ‘Fat Girl’ and another one ‘Good Enough’ so I mean… I guess it runs in the family.” she snickers.

“Okay, but seriously!” Mitchell grumbled. “Mary did have a point in saying that Luke would stick out like a sore thumb. The Water Tribe have more err… exotic looks about them, but Luke is Earth Kingdom. That was based off Ancient China so like… Luke sticks out a lot. We don’t want to make waves, but he’ll turn some heads. I mean, Luke’s tall in our universe, I’m pretty sure that 6’3” is gonna be a major oddity here.”

Luke pouted again. “What is it, make-fun-of-Luke day?”

“I mean, we can just be basic with his name. He can be ‘Li.’ Literally everyone in the Earth Kingdom is a ‘Li’ of some kind so it’s not that odd.” Mary pointed out.

“It’s as good as any,” Jennifer agreed. “And you, Mary?”

Mary folded her hands behind her head and smirked. “Dude, this doesn’t need to be such a big thing. Just call me ‘Mai’ – it’s easy enough to remember and appropriately ambiguous.”

 

* * *

 

Finally, they broke through the trees and arrived an actual main road. And because the universe owed them some kind of good karma, they also happened to run into an Earth Kingdom messenger riding on an ostrich-horse.

“Hey, you!” Luke yelled excitedly, waving his abnormally long arms in the air frantically, spear and all. “Do you have a moment to speak with us? We’re a bit lost!” he yells loudly. The rider tenses up but does stop the ostrich-horse long enough for the group of disgruntled teens to catch up.

The messenger looked over their group with thinly veiled curiosity before his eyes landed on Kate and the grip he held on the reigns. His hat sat low on his head, making it hard to see his face. “You’re an odd group,” he said stiffly, pointedly staring at the ground and tipping his head down. It was an odd reaction, but understandable considering that the Fire Nation was something very legitimate for the Earth Kingdom citizens to be wary of. “What are ya doin’ traveling with a Fire Nation girl?”

Panic briefly flashed across their eyes and Kate quickly stepped up to stand in front of Luke. It was kind of comical based on size difference, but she had to appear strong and in control. Being in character is incredibly important and that starts now. They were talking to an outsider after all. “I hired them to escort me,” she says haughtily, tilting her head up and somehow managing to glare down her nose at the messenger despite him being at a higher elevation than her.

Mary quickly jumped in before Kate or Luke could ruin the situation any more than they already have. “It’s true, sir. The only issue is we got a little turned around a while back, and now we don’t really know where we are.” She smiled sheepishly. The messenger’s mouth softened, his grimace turning into a more neutral expression as he regarded them carefully.

“And the Water Tribe girl?” he asked skeptically.

Kate’s sneer deepened. He was awfully curious for a simple messenger. It mustn’t be a time of peace then.

“She’s my fiance!” Mitchell said before anyone else could respond. His eyes flickered to Jennifer’s throat, the distinct lack of a betrothal necklace becoming very apparent. “Her parents don’t know,” he explained feebly. Luck did seem to be in their favour, however, and the messenger didn’t ask any other questions.

“You can’t account for taste, honestly!” Kate grumbled, crossing her arms and trying to channel her inner Azula. “Well? Where are we?”

Evidently deciding that he wasn’t going to address the mess before him, the Earth Kingdom citizen simply pointed down the path in the direction that he’d come from. “Going that way will get you to Omashu. From there, you should be able to get yourself transport to the Fire Nation,” he said with disdain.

Luke smiled brightly. “Thank you very much!” The messenger nodded sharply and moved to continue his journey but Mary interrupted him.

“Wait, one more thing.” She said sharply, reaching forward as if to grab for his shirt. “Do you happen to know who the current Fire Lord is?”

The messenger actually balked. “You don’t know? Why don’t you just ask your Fire Nation client.”

Mary pursed her lips. “Humour me.”

The messenger grumbled for a bit before finally answering. “The current Fire Lord is Fire Lord Azulon. Some people say that he’s even worse than Fire Lord Sozin was, and I’d believe it.”


End file.
